Crown Packaging and Sonoco Consumer Packaging took the top awards in the ‘Metal Pack of the Year’ categories, sponsored by the Metal Packaging Manufacturers Association (MPMA), at the UK Packaging Awards 2026.

Crown’s Estrella Damm 150^th Anniversary can was announced as the winner of ‘Metal Pack of the Year – High Volume Food and Beverage,’ with Ardagh Metal Packaging awarded Highly Commended for the Guinness Limited Edition Winter Holiday can.

Sonoco’s Kusmi Tea Extraordinary Voyages tin took the top spot for ‘Metal Pack of the Year – Promotional, Decorative & General Line’ with P Wilkinson Containers & William Say receiving Highly Commended for the 100 Years of the Queen, Royal Tea tin.

Held at the Hilton Park Lane, the awards ceremony brought together packaging professionals to celebrate 21 years of the UK Packaging Awards and its role in recognising innovation and creativity across the sector. The ‘Metal Pack of the Year’ awards were presented by Jason Galley, director and chief executive of MPMA and CanTech editorial board member, alongside this year’s ceremony host, award-winning comedian Aurie Styla. 

Galley commented: “The MPMA-sponsored awards celebrate the very best of metal packaging innovation, recognising product design and brand partnerships that are redefining what packaging can achieve with the unique circularity properties of steel and aluminium. With steel packaging achieving the highest recycling rate of any packaging material in the UK and aluminium, including the iconic beverage can, delivering consistently strong recycling performance, metal packaging is helping to build a true circular economy.”

He continued: “All of the finalists in the MPMA categories demonstrate how resource efficiency, brand creativity and commercial success can go hand in hand while pushing metal packaging beyond its traditional role. This year’s winners impressed us with powerful, imaginative storytelling showing how metal packaging is an incredible tool for consumer connection and brand differentiation.”

Metal Pack of the Year – High Volume Food and Beverage  

To celebrate 150 years of Estrella Damm, the Barcelona-born brewery partnered with Crown Packaging to create a premium, limited-edition range exclusive to the UK market. The range featured seven distinctive designs which together formed a collectible series. Bold, colourful and highly detailed mixing opaque and transparent inks, each can had individual status while creating a striking billboard effect when displayed together.

Produced at Crown’s Cambridgeshire facility, using Crown’s Accents Color technology, multiple designs within the same production were run by alternating visuals seamlessly during high-speed printing. Delivering this level of visual richness at scale demonstrates advanced decoration expertise.

Véronique Curulla, marketing and business development director at Crown Bevcan EMEA, said: “We are delighted to receive this recognition. Packaging plays a powerful role in storytelling, and this project demonstrates how design and manufacturing innovation can connect consumers with a brand’s heritage. This innovative can range showcases how variable printing can deliver both creative impact and production efficiency at scale in a highly recyclable packaging format.”

Highly Commended was awarded to Ardagh Metal Packaging for the ‘Guinness Limited Edition Winter Holiday’ richly-illustrated, keepsake can. The distinctive execution, including a glossy finish, combined technical print excellence with cultural storytelling and consumer appeal which elevated shelf presence within the festive gifting season.

Metal Pack of the Year – Promotional, Decorative and General Line 

For its 2025 festive collection, Kusmi Tea partnered with Sonoco to create a series of refillable, stackable, keepsake tins inspired by Jules Verne’s legendary The Extraordinary Voyages. This refillable approach strongly aligns with Kusmi Tea’s commitment to responsible consumption while the use of metal packaging was chosen to protect the tea from light, moisture and oxygen exposure – critical factors for preserving tea’s aroma and freshness.

The collection consists of three organic tea blends, each imagined as a different ‘extraordinary’ journey. Through the use of vibrant colours, intricate graphics and precise print execution, the storytelling collection delivered exceptional shelf stand-out while reinforcing premium brand identity.

Chris Law, key account manager at Sonoco Consumer Packaging, said: “We are delighted to see our collaboration with Kusmi Tea recognised by the industry. It is a great example of how metal packaging can elevate the consumer experience, combining outstanding decoration with lasting value through reuse.

“Alongside this recognition, Sonoco’s CapOnCan reseal can, awarded Best New Concept, demonstrates the exciting potential of metal packaging beyond traditional formats. By bringing resealability to metal cans, we are opening new opportunities for fillers to differentiate and deliver greater convenience to consumers for many different markets. Together, these innovations show that metal packaging is not just about protecting what is inside, but creating new possibilities for brands, fillers and consumers.”

P Wilkinson Containers & William Say received Highly Commended for the 100 Years of the Queen, Royal Tea tin. The keepsake collection, made by the London-based manufacturer, comprised a tea tin and matching shortbread tin, featuring intricate pink and gold artwork, fine line work and subtle tonal variations developed specifically for the centenary celebrations.